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Monday, September 6, 2010

The Liberals are proposing an incentive programme to persuade small and medium sized businesses to switch over to more efficient lighting. Jack Keir, who was the Energy Minister when the election was called, says it will cost 8 million dollars over 4 years.

Keir says the province would pick up 80 per cent of the cost of converting and he estimates the average yearly savings in energy costs will amount to around 400 dollars.

Provincial Conservative Leader David Alward, meantime, is promising to create a Pension Protection Task Force to review current pension laws and make sure workers in the province are protected.

It's day nine of a strike by Union Local 1306 which represents everyone from maintenance staff to restaurant servers at the Delta Brunswick and Brunswick Square. Lawrence McKay is the Atlantic Rep for the United Steelworkers Union and tells CHSJ News, no other talks are planned after a marathon session this past Friday.

McKay adds two of the outstanding issues remain wages and maintaining union representation in the company's two tier benefit system. He charges the company didn't seem very serious at the latest round of negotiations so no new talks are scheduled for the time being.

(Saint John District Labour Council President Ron Oldfield) (File Photo)

Labour in Saint John is celebrating its day this year with a picnic in Rockwood Park but District Labour Council president Ron Oldfield tells CHSJ News there won't be a parade this year thanks to a jump in the price of insurance.

Oldfield says the spike in the insurance cost is being blamed on the fallout from the violence at the G-20 summit in Toronto in late June but he's vowing the parade will return next year.

Today's labour picnic runs between noon and 3:00 in Rockwood Park. There's no admission and it's open to the public.

District 6 is using 34 modular classrooms this school year, the most ever. Superintendent Zoe Watson says there is already one portable classroom at Harry Miller Middle School but that won't be sufficient because of the increase in the number of students attending. Watson says the new portable won't arrive until the middle of September so one class will be calling the Library home until then.